1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for information security management in information processing, an information management method for the apparatus, and a storage medium that computer-readably stores a program for causing a computer to carry out the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, computerized documents (hereinafter referred to as electronic documents) have frequently been used. Electronic documents are very convenient in that they can easily be transmitted and distributed by way of e-mail attachments. On the other hand, the ease of distribution of electronic documents raises new problems such as leakage of information.
Currently, there has been introduced a technique of protecting PDF (portable document format) and other files by means of settings (hereinafter referred to as security policy) that provide limitations on displaying, editing, printing, and other operations on the files, so that only valid users may be able to carry out printing and other operations on the files.
In some image forming apparatus, print job data transmitted from a client terminal via a network is converted into vector or bitmap data, and intermediate data for use in printing is generated. The intermediate data is sometimes stored as a file in a hard disk of the image forming apparatus for the purpose of being edited, transmitted to another apparatus, reprinted, and so on. The function of storing the intermediate data as a file in the hard disk of the image forming apparatus for reuse purpose is called a box function, and a file system therefor is called a box.
Some of the files stored in the box include secrete information. Preferably, therefore, these files be protected by a security policy as in the original files. In an image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 11-227267, a password is set for the box to permit only valid users to access files in the box.
First files protected on a computer such as a client terminal by a security policy are sometimes stored as second files in an image forming apparatus by means of the box function or the like. At that time, unlike the first files, the second files cannot sufficiently be protected by the security policy. Certainly, the second files stored in the box disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 11-227267 can be protected by use of a password. However, if some second file is transmitted to another apparatus for reuse purpose or the like, it is difficult to protect the second file by means of the password.
In addition, if an item different from security policy items of the first file is added to the second file, a limitation cannot be provided on the newly added item.
In a case where the security policy is changed, it is preferable to maintain the consistency between the original security policy items and the newly added item.